About Me

My life was described by one of my editors as “impossibly exotic” – although really it was not my life, but me, that was the exotic, the uprooted plant, the one who didn’t belong, always living in someone else’s backyard...
Now I am back in Australia, the returning native learning to live where I was born. Writer, traveler, environmentalist. Author of The Isles of Glory trilogy (The Aware, Gilfeather, The Tainted); The Mirage Makers trilogy (Heart of the Mirage, The Shadow of Tyr, Song of the Shiver Barrens) and, writing as Glenda Noramly, a stand-alone book Havenstar. The latest trilogy is called The Watergivers in Australia and the Stormlord trilogy elsewhere: THE LAST STORMLORD, STORMLORD RISING, STORMLORD'S EXILE

LATEST:
THE FORSAKEN LANDS
The story of a clash of cultures and magic as traders and buccaneers of the Va-cherished Hemisphere hunt for spices and wealth in the Va-forsaken half of the world ... even as the unidentified darkness of plague and murder stalks their own land.
THE LASCAR'S DAGGER available worldwide now!

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Thoughts on weddings and stuff.

When I first came to Malaysia, we went to lots of village weddings - my husband's generation, friends, cousins etc.

Village people helped supply the food, menfolk did the cooking at the home of the bride or groom, the village youth did the waiting on tables, village women decorated and cleaned and prepared.One of the things villagers did was to take whatever eggs they could spare to the wedding house (knowing others would do the same for them when members of their own family married). The eggs were hardboiled and then one or more was given to each of the guests. Each egg was wrapped in half a paper napkin or a twist of cellophane or something similar - nothing too fancy.

They said two things, those eggs: firstly, "Thanks for coming and here's a token of our appreciation"; and secondly, "Hey, eggs are a symbol of fertility, and here's hoping this young couple has a family and secures the future." You took the egg home and ate it.

Nowadays, few people give eggs anymore. They substitute a slice of cake, or chocolates, or a tiny bag of potpourri. And the containers have become more and more elaborate, often made of china or pottery, and then placed in lovely paper bags with the name of bride and bridegroom on the outside.

My problem is - we go to a lot of weddings. Hardly a week goes by that we don't receive an invitation, and although we turn most of them down, we still end up with dozens of things like those I have pictured - in twos, because husband and wife each get one.

I'm an environmentalist and I like things that can be recycled or used...and believe me, there's only so many pin containers one can have in a house. So what should I do with these? As much as I appreciate the thought, and the enormous amount of trouble that the family have gone to, I want a return to something wrapped in a twist of cheap recycled paper.

That would be enough to say thanks - and it would go a little way towards saving the world's resources. Am I wrong? And what do other people do with these things???

3 comments:

You give them to people who will appreciate them. When you travel to Perth, for instance, a small souvenir of a Malaysian wedding you actually attended would make a lovely present for an organiser or a fan or a seldom-seen friend. It would carry a bit of your life into theirs.

Avoid weddings if I can. Fortunately the ones I go to seem to give away little bags of sugared almonds to the guests; only the bridesmaids and best man etc. would get more permanent presents as mementos.

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Awards

BEST FANTASY NOVEL OF THE YEAR Shortlisted Finalist2003: for The Aware; 2004: for The Tainted; 2006: for Heart of the Mirage; 2007: for The Song of the Shiver Barrens; 2009: for The Last Stormlord 2010: for Stormlord Rising 2011: for Stormlord's Exile